Tuesday, October 29, 2013

McKellen: The first time I remember an actual conversation with Patrick, we were in America. You

Sirs Ian and Patrick in conversation | Chad Jones' Theater Dogs
Knights of the realm: Patrick Stewart (left, photo by Robert Ascroft) and Ian McKellen (photo by Sarah Dunn) bring Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land to Berkeley Repertory Theatre before taking cafe counters it to Broadway, where it will run in rotating cafe counters rep with Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
It’s not the worst thing in the world to have to spend an hour with two of England’s finest: Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart . Though more famous from TV and film than for their extraordinary stage careers (on both sides of the Atlantic), the two journeymen actors are giving up the sci-fi/fantasy limelight to return to their first love: the stage.
They are currently on stage at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land co-starring Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley . (Good luck getting a ticket; they’re awfully hard to come by, as you might expect.)
“I saw the original production of ‘No Man’s Land’ in London starring John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson three times in one week,” Stewart says. “I couldn’t get enough. I’d have gone again if I’d had the money. It was the brilliance of the writing. I don’t think there’s anything quite like this play. I have been quoting bits of the play for years that I remembered simply from being in the audience.”
“I’m allowing myself one moment of homage when I say, ‘Good Lord, did you really?’ like Richardson,” Stewart says with gusto. “Richardson also wore dazzling blue socks under a silver suit. I’d like to do that if our designer can find the right socks.”
McKellen: The first time I remember an actual conversation with Patrick, we were in America. You’d just been offered a chance at Star Trek . Stewart: Yes. It was that week. I had been given from Monday lunch until Friday lunch to make a decision. I was staying with a friend and you came over for dinner. McKellen: You asked me what I thought you should do, and I said, “Think very carefully.” Stewart: You were reserved and cautious. McKellen: It wasn’t that the material wasn’t cafe counters worth doing. It was just the prospect of six years living outside your own country. Stewart: That’s what terrified me about the part. As is now part of the Star Trek mythology, I spent those four days talking to everybody I knew with any experience of Hollywood. Without exception, they said that I shouldn’t cafe counters worry about those six years. They said I’d be lucky to make it through the first season because cafe counters you cannot resurrect an iconic series. I remember cafe counters a well-established Hollywood writer telling me to take and make money for the first time (which was true), get a suntan, meet girls and go home. I was married at the time, so I didn’t meet any girls.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks To Sirs with love: Pinpointing Pinter cafe counters at Berkeley Rep | Chad Jones' Theater Dogs - [...] [bonus interview] I sat down with Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart during a rehearsal break at Berkeley ...
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